We're Shoving Right Off
by TheBlueFoxtrot A Samba
Summary: Three years post-war. The Fire Lady has been kidnapped...by pirates! Zuko and the rest of the GAang to the rescue. But will they have to save her from the pirates or the pirates from her?
1. Chapter 1

According to **Reina, **my stories rock. Therefore, since they come from my mind, I rock! Yeah? Reina, this one is for and because of you.

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Her head hurt. That was the first thing she was aware of she came to. Not just a little ache. Oh, no. More like a badger-mole had taken residence in her head and was rearranging things to make the space more comfortable to live in. Nevermind that she'd been using it to think and function.

She forced her eyes to open. Then opened them wider. Either she was blind, or it was just dark. Wait, there was light coming through a crack in the bottom of the dark. A door? Looking around, she could see that she was in a metal room, like on a ship. Why was she on a ship?

_Oh, yeah._

She had been kidnapped.

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In a grand hall of the Imperial Palace, the young Fire Lord's breath came in short bursts that produced fire from his mouth.

"Zuko, calm down," Katara held up her hands in a placating gesture. The Fire Lord was not having any of that.

"Don't tell me what to do!" he growled out.

"Oh, that's mature," Sokka rolled his eyes.

Zuko rounded on the warrior.

"Why don't we let your wife get abducted by pirates and see how you react?"

"Well, for one thing, that already happened but they weren't pirates. Secondly, Suki's my bethrothed."

Zuko reared back his head and shot fire twenty feet straight into the air and scorched the ceiling.

"Sokka, if you're not going to say anything useful, kindly shut up," his sister reprimanded him while glaring at him.

Sokka stood in front of the firebender and put his hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eye.

"I know you're worried about her. I get that you're mad and want to bust some heads. But reacting the way you are now is not going to help her or anyone else. You have to keep your head. All right?"

Zuko stepped back and heaved a deep breath of air and slowly let it out, calming his fire and then one more.

"You're right. Sorry."

"Forget about it. Now if you think that you can keep yourself from burning down the crime scene, follow me."

Sokka started off down the hall with Katara and Zuko flanking him.

"We're going to find her, Zuko," Katara put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I know."

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A/N: And this is why you review. So the writers feel encouraged and come up with new stories to entertain you. It's the circle of life…circle of writing…same thing. And you may even get a story dedicated to you. And everyone wants a story dedicated to them. And I use 'and' at the beginning of all these sentences because all of the English teachers said not to. ^_^

I do believe this is the shortest thing I've ever posted. Consider it a prologue. This is post-war, about three years, maybe.

YO HO YO HO! A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME! We pillage and plunder and don't give a hoot! Stand up me harties, YO HO! We – 'kay, I'll stop now.

I have no idea when I'll update this one. This chapter is basically just to get it out there…here. Whatever.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not make any claim of ownership whatsoever on the massive swirl of awesome that is Avatar: The Last Airbender. That belongs to these two mad geniuses named Mike and Bryan.

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She could hear footsteps thudding on the wooden floors. Odd. The walls felt cool and after her eyes had adjusted to the dark, it looked metal. The footfalls stopped in front of door. She would have gotten up and taken an offensive/relaxed position, but the chain on her arm only had enough length to it for her to come to her knees. As it was, she sat with her legs stretched out in front of her and her arms crossed over her stomach. Her head was positioned to avoid aggravating the bump on the back of her directly on the back of her head. The door opened and a tall man stepped in with the rolling gait of a sailor.

He was a tall man dressed in a dark lavender robe with loose dark blue trousers and a hat with long gray bangs flowing from the front on each side of his face. It even had a feather. A broadsword was strapped to his left and his forearms were covered in polished black steel bracers. He even had a parrot-lizard on his shoulder. She thought it the ugliest creature she'd ever seen on mere principle of the matter. He smiled a smile that had no warmth to it. She compared it to a predator bearing its teeth.

"A good day to you, Fire Lady Mai," he performed a perfect Fire Nation.

She didn't lose her bored expression as she stared at him.

"Captain Cheng, I presume."

"Ah, so his majesty has told you about me," he stepped further into the room and left the door open to allow light into her cell.

"I got the gist of it."

_You betrayed him. You tried to kill him._

If there had been a blade on her, she would have pinned him to the wooden wall outside of this room. As it was, she checked earlier and the sharpest thing she had on her was her nails. Whoever had searched her had been thorough. The fact annoyed her more than anything. They'd even removed the pins from her hair and the thick, black mass hung down her back.

"What do you want?" she asked even though she had a pretty good idea anyway. It was customary to ask these kinds of questions in a situation like this.

"My lady, you do, of course, understand the workings of a business. I performed a service for your husband before the end of the war. He never paid me and I lost my boat. You are merely here to ensure that our transaction is completed in a satisfactory manner for everyone," this guy had charisma and was surprisingly well-spoken. He'd make a great politician. Really, he would. If she weren't chained to wall in a dark room completely bare of her weapons and didn't have a headache from when one of his men had hit her in the head, she might have fallen for that pretty little speech, maybe.

"The deal was for you to help my husband capture the Avatar and he would help you recover your scroll that the waterbender stole. Then you decided to take the Avatar to Ozai yourselves. Payment was never discussed. Also the Avatar and his friends are the ones who sailed your ship off of a waterfall. And your men sailed his boat over the same falls."

"Well, sure, if you want to get technical about it, lady," he waved her statement away.

"So, is this going to be a routine thing," she looked him square in the eye as she spoke, watching for any tells, "Or are you going to try something overly complicated that will draw this whole thing out?"

"My lady, I am businessman. I only wish to bring this matter to a satisfactory end for everyone," he spread his arms wide as if to encompass the whole world.

"Zuko won't be satisfied 'til he has your head."

"Now, this room," he continued on like she hadn't said a word, "is not so accommodating to a lady of your standards. If you cooperate without any tricks, then appropriate lodgings will be provided for the duration of your stay."

She arched a brow at that. Just what did they think she was going to do? One lone, weaponless, chained to a wall, injured eighteen year old woman against an unknown number of men.

_Hm. He's not as stupid as I thought. Maybe this won't be so boring after all._

She had to resist the small smile.

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"Hmmm," Sokka chewed on the end of his bubble pipe, "There appears to have been a struggle," he said as he stroked a non-existent beard. He insisted that he could grow one, but Suki preferred him clean-shaven.

"Really, Sokka? What was your first clue?" Zuko asked through gritted teeth as he, Sokka, and Katara stood in a room within the palace that had a contingent of guards around the perimeter. "The blood stains, the knives in the walls, or the broken furniture?" Zuko's temper had certainly improved over the years. Mai had helped greatly with that, being his counter-balance. But Mai wasn't here right now and smoke was literally coming out of the nineteen year old Fire Lord.

"They came in through the window and went out again when they were done," Sokka followed the scuff marks and thin trail of blood and ignored his 'pouting' friend; no, he was not afraid to call him that to his face, but there was a time and place for these things. He didn't feel like playing dodge-fireball today, thank you. "What time did Mai go to bed last night?" he asked as he examined the trellis outside the window with a magnifying glass.

"I don't know, before me. When I got to our room though, she was there. I don't know when they could – "

Sokka overlooked the break in his speech, realizing that he was probably holding back tears. He smiled at the irony. Four years ago, he would have paid good money to see Prince Zuko cry. Now he just wanted to help him find Mai and not pay attention to his emotional lapse. If he made a big deal about, Zuko would get all embarrassed about and get pissy. Though it wouldn't be fireball worthy. But then it indirectly involved Mai. Without Mai in the equation, that made the Fire Lord unpredictable.

"Zuko, it's okay," but then Katara had to go and be comforting and get all touch-feely with his shoulder again. Sokka rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh at his sister's…momness. He couldn't believe he was thinking this, but she just go ahead and have Aang's baby already and stop smothering, er, mothering everyone. He loved her like a sister, but come on!

"I'm fine," he jerked his arm away from her touch.

"So that means they got her early this morning before her first meeting with General Wan Shi," Sokka continued. "Mai is usually in here before meetings right?"

"Yes," Zuko answered, "either this room or the other on the opposite end. She said she needed some variation to her routine."

"And it would stand to reason that whoever took her had some idea of what her routine was. Has anyone come and gone today? Besides the abductors obviously."

"No one. The entire city is on lockdown. The area is tighter around the palace."

"Then it wouldn't be unreasonable," Sokka paused for dramatic effect. He opened his mouth.

"It was an inside job!"

"Katara! Why do you always have to do that? I'm the detective here, I do the detecting and then you just blurt out my findings in the most blasé way you can!"

"Oh, Sokka," she rolled her eyes.

"If you think you can do better, what should we do next? Hmm?"

"Well, we should –" she stopped when Zuko walked past them both to the door and called for a guard.

He barked out orders before the soldier had completed his bow.

"I want all staff who are aware of Fire Lady Mai's schedule in the grand hall now. Leave the guards assigned to this room be. Send a messenger hawk to Avatar Aang in Bah Sing Se telling him to get Lady Bei Fong and for them both come here immediately at the urgent request of the Fire Lord."

"As you command, Fire Lord," the guard bowed, turned, and walked away.

Zuko hissed a breath of air and ran a hand down his face.

"Corporal," he called.

"My lord?" the soldier turned to him.

"You have my permission to run. Use it."

"Yes, Fire Lord," he bowed again, turned, and took off at a sprint.

Zuko closed the door and walked back into the center of the room.

"What else can you come up with?"

"The question should be," he held up a green, scaly feather, "what else _have _I come up with?"

Katara gasped and put a hand over her mouth.

Zuko snarled and spit out his next word.

"Pirates!"

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A/N: I completely made up the pirate's was a little longer. Everything will be cleared up as I go along. If anyone spots any plot holes, please point them out. Well, this got done sooner than I thought it would. Heads up for y'all: I'll be attending college in August so updates will be even less frequent.

And for the love of all that is sane, WHY is there so much freaking zutara? Do they realize it's a crack pairing? I just don't understand. She's not even that great! Whatever. Ignore my mini rant.


	3. Chapter 3

After Zuko had stopped yelling curses on the whole lot of the crew and tossing fire around to emphasize how much he wished for their souls to bleed in Koh's lair throughout eternity, he flopped to the ground and sat with his legs crossed panting for air. While Katara put out the small fires with her waterbending, Sokka edged cautiously towards Zuko who ignored him.

"Feel better?"

Zuko gave him a look that clearly stated better than words how inane and stupid he found that question.

"I'm so sorry, Zuko," Katara said as she walked towards them. The room now, on top of the damage done by the pirates and Mai, had smoke damage. "I feel like this is my fault a little."

"A little?" Sokka arched a brow at her. "Only a little? Try completely."

Katara sent him a glare.

"It is not comp-"

"Who stole the scroll?"

That left her gaping for a moment. Then she opened her mouth and shut it again, doing a very good imitation of a fish. Giving up, she crossed her arms and turned away.

"I love it when I win," Sokka grinned.

"This isn't about whose fault it is," Katara had not appreciated that last comment or how smug her brother looked. "It's about rescuing Mai."

"They're either motivated by money or revenge," Zuko said as he came to his feet.

"Wouldn't it make more sense for them to come after me then?" Katara asked.

"No," he started walking to the door and the siblings followed on either side. "You're a master waterbender; they're pirates. They wouldn't really be able to hold you. Besides, when it comes right down to it," he opened the door and the guards stood aside to allow him to continue, "all Captain Cheng is interested in is money."

"Exactly. They think all they have to do with Mai is take her weapons and she's harmless," Sokka blew bubbles out of his pipe.

"That's hardly the case," Katara said.

"Yeah, but that's what they think. Mai has an advantage here. As smart as she is, by the time we show up for the rescue, she'll have the crew pinned to the walls with splinters."

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Mai, of course, agreed to cooperate for the duration rather than the time being, although she didn't clarify that part to the good captain. She'd been escorted to her new room by two of the ships crew. The first mate who was a thin little weasel-rat of a man with close set eyes and a wide mouth, wore Earth Kingdom green. The other was a big, burly man with long, dark hair, brown leather bracers wearing blue pants. And only blue pants.

Blue Pants told her she was pretty.

She told him to go suck a lemon.

Weasel-Rat laughed and said he liked her spirit but not to cause any trouble. It'd be better for her that way.

She'd thought he sounded like her mother.

She didn't know how many others there were or what they did. But one thing she was certain of: they didn't bathe regularly.

The first room was specially designed for firebenders down in the brig, but the rest of the ship appeared to be made of wood. Her new room was still below deck. On the way, she'd noticed stairs leading above.

Her new room was slightly bigger than the cell. There was a cot on the floor with a single blanket, a chamber pot in the corner, and a small port window that Ty Lee wouldn't even be able to twist through. There were no splinters and it was surprisingly clean. Either Captain Cheng required the crew to keep his ship cleaner than them or he had them clean it just for her. She decided it was the latter because it made her feel special. (FFnet seriously needs a sarcasm font, I swear)

She took all of this in a moment before she sighed dejectedly and put her head in her hands.

"I survive the war, boredom, and Azula, get the guy only to die in a tiny, little room…from boredom. I do not appreciate the irony."

She flicked her hair behind her before she slid down the wall.

_This is where the plotting begins._

**A/N:** That is just pitiful how short that is. There is really no point to post this chapter yet. But I do it anyway.


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